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Is It a Good Idea to Go Back and Update and Revise My Website Content for SEO?

SEO and digital marketing are fast-paced industries that are always changing. Several years ago, it used to be more acceptable to create 300-word blog articles and expect to get ranked for the right keywords. However, many content marketers like Neil Patel have advocated for a long-form SEO content strategy targeting long-tail keywords.

With that said, you might be wondering whether these changes apply to website content. It took a while to discover the right tone and voice for your website and implement that into the copywriting.

Is it worth the time to go back and revise content you’ve created in the past as well as creating new content regularly?

There are several reasons why this would be the right move to make for advancing your SEO forward. Your website and business are growing, so your content needs to keep up with the changes. Here are some of the top reasons why you should be updating and revising content on your website.

1. You Give Google More Reasons to Index Your Website

Updating your content and adding new posts lets Google know that there’s regular activity on your site. Google ranks websites higher when the site is updated at least a few times a week, preferably every day if you can. Blogging is the best way to get the updates you need from Googlebot.

From our experience, it takes less than 24 hours for a blog post to be indexed. In the last several months we have been creating new blog content, the number of keywords has been on a steady increase, with several keywords going up in the ranking too.

2. Your Skills in Copywriting Will Improve

By updating your website regularly with new content, your copywriting skills will improve each time. The progress you make will add up tremendously. You’ll look back on your older content and think about how you can improve on it.

Better content means better engagement rates, which Google will take notice. It’s also assuming that you’re doing all you can to promote both new and old content on social media. It’s recommended that you plug your older content a couple of times a month. You can check out some of Neil Patel’s tips on how to do this on social media here.

3. You’ll Position Your Business as an Authority

You’ll become an expert in the niche that you chose to base your business around by regularly creating new content answering people’s questions and concerns. The more informative, useful, and engaging your content is, the more people will come to trust you as a go-to source of information.

Making updates to old content and elaborating on specific points will also help, as well as adding internal links to content which expands upon earlier topics. All of this content entices website visitors to purchase from you, which is the goal of SEO and content marketing to begin with.

With trust also comes user loyalty, which is more than a commodity. It’s what will set your business apart from the rest in your industry. It’s simple when you think about it: provide better content more often, better customer service, better user experience, and better web design, and the conversions will start coming as a result with the right levels of promotion on social media and pay-per-click advertising sites. It’s also possible someone will give you a free backlink if they loved your content that much, saving you from having to go door to door online asking for backlinks from others.

4. Make Your Content More Readable

It never hurts to go back to some old posts and update them with infographics and images that support your points. You could also go back and split up longer paragraphs, so they’re easier to read. Whatever you think your audience will like, run with those ideas and test them out by sharing your updated content on social media

Measure the engagement, click-through-rates, and comments to see if your efforts were a success.

5. Boost Your Conversion Rates

Even when you believe you came up with the perfect idea for a post, it may not perform as well as anticipated. Check Google Analytics to see what the metrics were for that post. See how long people spent on the page before going somewhere else. Try adding more call-to-action statements and links to places where visitors can contact you. Consider the experience of different users and keep their preferences on your mind as you update old website content to generate more conversions.

6. Improve Content Accuracy

People are going to be reading your content for years to come. In the time you published that article from last year, new statistics and figures came out rendering some of the points you made obsolete. Go back and add a disclaimer or note to your old content to reflect what’s happening now in your industry. Website visitors will appreciate that you’re staying on top of what’s happening in your field. You also position yourself as a better authority on the subject matter working in the best interests of your audience.

7. Add More Internal Links

The beauty in updating and maintaining a blog is how naturally, there are going to be topics you cover closely interrelated. It may be in your best interest to go back to your old content and add internal links to newer content where you’ve elaborated on ideas discussed previously. For example, last year, you wrote an article on the best ways to grow a YouTube channel.

That post was comprehensive and covered many of the basics. Since that time, you’ve created more posts covering more specific topics within that niche. It would make sense to look at your old post and update it with internal links to new, relevant content that would help your audience.

8. Changes to Your Business Model

Lastly, you should undoubtedly update content on your website if your business model has changed. There are going to be times where you may have to phase out a service you offered before, making the page on that service unneeded. Be careful when you’re deleting old posts and content. Check to see if the post is still bringing in valuable traffic. Consider using a 301 redirect to a relevant page if you still don’t want the page or post on your website anymore. Also, you should check to see how many thin content pages you have.

When you delete a post or page, use a 410 HTTP status code to let Google know that your page is gone for good. Doing this will keep Google from having that nonexistent page indexed in their search engine for weeks or even months.

Summary

Look at your website content the same way you look at your business. Both need to grow and change as sales and traffic pick up. There are also new updates and trends in your industry which make it necessary to go back and revise old content.

Creating good website content while building your website was only the start. To stay relevant in Google searches, you must be prepared to revise old content when it’s needed and even delete thin pages to improve the user experience on your site.

If you’d like more tips on SEO, web design, and digital marketing, visit our blog where you’ll learn insights from our experts. To get a free consultation and SEO site audit from our team, call us at 470-440-3434 or email [email protected] for more information.